Dreaming of financial freedom!

ch4rly2002

The electrician came today and tested everything.... everything worked beautifully so no repairs to pay for. It was only £100 (British Gas quoted a lot more than that), so I was happy to get mates rates from the buyer's colleague All done and that's another job (and expense) crossed off the list.

ch4rly2002

I'm just scanning through my old documents so I can shred them and not have to take them with us in the move. I'm currently working through my bank statements from university / early married life and I could weep at some of the things I wasted my money on

themadvix

How far back do they go Charly? I think Martin says you only need to keep bank statements for a year, and at the most 7 years for tax purposes.

ch4rly2002

Ah, thank you MV. They were from 2005 onwards, so I will just keep the last 7 years... that will save some storage and it means I won't have to scan as many of DH's old bank statements

ch4rly2002

I'm really excited about OnePoll... I'm now up to £39.50 so only 50p to go! I hope to reach it in the next couple of days so I can request a payout and hopefully receive it just after we move to the new house so that I can use it to go towards anything needed at the new place.

BIL is coming tonight. We're going to watch the Muppet's Treasure Island film. DH loves the muppets but hasn't seen it yet so this will be new to both of us. DH is cooking tonight. We've set a bit of a competition between the three of us to make the best pasta bake - just a bit of fun. BIL did one that was probably 80% cheese :eek: and tonight DH is doing an Indian theme one and will be doing a pasta bake with korma sauce - I don't know too much about it as he's keeping it a closely guarded secret. I will be doing mine next week and I've decided to do a fajita inspired pasta bake. Mine will be chicken, peppers, onion, mushrooms and spinach cooked in fajita spices and sauce, then mixed with pasta, put into a pyrex dish with cheese on and into the oven to melt it, finally served with sour cream and guacamole.

We spoke to BIL and his wife in California at the weekend. They'd mentioned we owed them some money from the holiday we had over there last year (our share of an Air BNB place, wine tasting costs etc.) and I must admit we were dreading it. I expected it to be £1000+. Luckily when we got the numbers it 'just' came to £460, so not as bad as we were bracing ourselves for. That being said, it's still a heck of a lot of money on top of what we'd already paid so I am very grateful that we are holidaying with the in-laws this year as DH's parents are now retired so don't want to spend much and BIL (one in Yorkshire) doesn't earn too much so we will all want a relatively frugal holiday. We will be going over to celebrate BIL's birthday and then 2 weeks later his wedding anniversary and as he has been told from work that he won't be able to take time off due to work projects, we have decided to go up to Chigaco and drive part way down Route 66 in the time between. The in-laws are good at finding hotel / holiday deals and with us making the plans now we should hopefully be able to book early and not pay high last minute prices. I'm glad we have that to look forward to.

Dad's not in a great way at the moment. He seems to have been very unhappy and agitated over the past week or so. He is also surprisingly strong to say that he has spent most of the last 2 years either sitting or lying down. He's only allowed thickened drinks now but last week when my mum cleaned his teeth and gave him a few sips of water to rinse his mouth out, as she always has done, he grabbed her wrist and downed the water. Not only did this make him have a particularly nasty coughing fit, it's really hurt mum's wrist She hasn't told him though as she knows it's not his fault - it's his illness. He's managed to unbuckle his strap a few times and he's taken to lifting his foot rest on his chair several times a day (he's only awake a few hours each day so you can imagine how frequent it is) and even lifted his leg over the side of his chair at the weekend. He's also gone from not being able to say more than a couple of words to talking all the time (nonsensical mind you). It's so strange to see such a change in him, it's like going back in time 2 years to when he first went into a nursing home. As this is a progressive illness and people normally get worse and worse and end up sleeping most of the time and not talking (as he has done up until the last week), we have no idea what's going on. The nurse doesn't think anything in the medicine could cause it. I do wonder if it's a sign he's close to the end. I heard that sometimes get a bit better before they die, though I am purely guessing. Mum's shattered and so she is taking a couple of days off, which I am very pleased about. I have been so worried about her as this is all taking a toll on her, mentally and physically. Work commitments permitting, I will try and get over to see him a couple of times in my lunch break this week.

Grandma rang and has given me a shopping list for tomorrow. I've often offered to get the shopping for her but she refuses because she likes to go out to the supermarket - it's a little trip for her, so when she asked me to do the shopping for her I knew she wasn't feeling well she said she isn't feeling great and has a bad headache but she's going to drink plenty and have some paracetamol so hopefully she will feel better tomorrow so we can have our usual cup of tea, bun and chat after I've done her shopping as I know she looks forward to having visits.

themadvix

A busy round-up there Charly. Good news about OP and the reduced bill from across the pond, although it's still a lot of money, especially when you're moving!

Sorry to hear about your Dad, the toll it's taking on your mum and your Grandma not feeling well - you do such a good job of caring for all of them.

Make sure you take care of yourself as well though! x

ch4rly2002

Thanks MV

I love a freebie! British Gas sent me a voucher for a free Sky Store purchase (up to £13.99) so we have bought a copy of the latest version of IT as we enjoyed the film, would want to watch it again in future and there is going to be a sequel so we'll definitely want to watch it again when that's released.

Lunch was a use-up meal and we made scrambled egg that we wrapped up in the remaining 2 tortilla wraps. It was surprisingly nice.

We have the first of 3 removal companies coming today to give us a quote. Fingers crossed it'll be a good price (it's the company who moved us up here from Nottingham).

OP is at £39.90 - so close!

gallygirl

BIL did one that was probably 80% cheese :eek:

In my mind a pasta bake is basically a way to cram as much cheese into as little pasta as possible so BIL wins for me :rotfl:.
Sorry things are so tough family wise. Hope dad settles and mum gets some rest. Also hope grandma is better - I enjoy reading about her, she sounds a sparky little thing (in my mind she's about 5' with curly grey hair, glasses, a floral pinnie and pink cardi . I expect she;s actually a flame-haired tattooed ex-biker:rotfl: ).

ch4rly2002

Hi Gallygirl, thanks for the message

You are right, the cheese is the main star

Thanks for the well wishes. I will be going to see Dad today and I'll send mum a status report to ease her mind. Your (accurate) description of my Grandma made me laugh out loud - thank goodness I'm not in the office! You are right about Grandma, she is certainly a bit of a firecracker :rotfl: I went shopping for her last night and she wasn't well when I got there. She has to go to the hospital today about her back / legs but luckily she's being taken by patient transport and they will push her in her wheelchair.

DH brought two beds and a mattress downstairs yesterday (by himself, I was having kittens!) and put them outside so I've been able to order a bulky waste collection from the council. They only charge £5 per item, so I'm pretty pleased with that. I seem to recall them charging a lot more in the past, but that might have been because it was for electrical items. I've read their T&Cs and it doesn't say anything about covering them, which is great because Nottingham Council insisted on it and we had a heck of a job trying to cover our sofas in the wind and rain, never mind single and a double bed.

The buyer called round yesterday with our electrical certificate that his colleague had typed up. It was nice to see him again and he was just as enthusiastic as ever. They've already started packing up and moving our their things. They're going to be storing some items in their garage and some in a small storage unit so they've already made progress. He said they're serious about it and not hanging around so I felt more assured about everything. The main part if making sure the sale goes through, even if something happened with our purchase, we could find another house, but I would hate to have to start with house viewings and solicitor questions again!

themadvix

Well that leaves the question - which version of Gally's description is your Grandma? I'm opting for tattoed ex-biker

The bulk collection sounds very reasonable - I'm sure it's more like £25 round here!